The Water-Babies: a ficlet collection
by readerofasaph
Summary: A general collection of Free! ficlets and drabbles.
1. on being a land baby

**on being a land baby**  
**wordcount**: 720  
**summary: **None of us were sure who started the rumour that Haru-chan was a kappa.

None of us were sure who started the rumour that Haru-chan was a kappa. It might have been one of our cousins, or a classmate. It might have been a jealous club member who missed out on the relay race.

It might have been Haru-chan himself - not that Haru-chan ever claimed to be a kappa, but given the daily poetic meditations on wetness and rivers and oceans and the living nature of water, other children were bound to draw conclusions.

What's for certain is that at one point or another, all of us believed the rumour was true.

#

"Nanase-kun can't be a kappa," said Nagisa. "He's a dolphin."

Makoto tried to make sense of Nagisa's words. He didn't succeed. That was okay, because being Haruka's best friend meant that he was used to listening to a lot of things that didn't make sense.

Nagisa didn't make sense in a way that was completely different to the way Haruka didn't make sense, but Makoto was getting used to Nagisa's senselessness as well.

"Dolphins are much better at swimming than kappas," Makoto said.

Nagisa's face brightened. "Yeah, exactly! Nanase-kun's freestyle is much too graceful for him to be a kappa."

They all looked at Haruka, floating on his back in the middle of the pool, and completely ignoring the conversation.

"Haruka doesn't even do the dolphin kick," objected Rin, technically minded as ever.

#

Rin's position on the matter was that he didn't _care_ whether or not Haruka was a kappa, as long as he could swim, do it really fast, and win them the relay trophy.

Nagisa thought Rin was far more likely to be a kappa than Haruka was. He could definitely picture Rin eating human liver. It was hard to imagine Haruka eating something that wasn't fish. Unless it was unagi. Or mentaiko. Or wakame. Haruka was addicted to wakame.

He couldn't remember if he'd ever seen Haruka eat cucumbers.

"You know that kappas drink human blood," Nagisa told Makoto.

"They do?" Makoto's long fine eyelashes flickered in a worried fashion. For a moment his gaze darted to Haruka, who had jumped straight into the full tide and was moving out to sea with seamless speed.

"They also drown horses," Nagisa added helpfully. "Are you scared of them now, Mako-chan?"

"Of course I'm not," Makoto protested, and gave every river and pond in the area a wide berth for three weeks, finally caving when Haruka announced that he wanted to go freshwater fishing.

#

"So my sister told me that her best friend's sister told her that you're a kappa," Rin said, giving Haruka a wide grin and gently sending a small ripple of chlorinated water in his direction.

"Oh," Haruka said, staring blankly at the floor of the pool.

"Gou doesn't believe it's true. She thinks you're a merman." Rin paused. "I think she kind of likes you."

Haruka shrugged.

Rin waited a little longer, then sighed. "Okay, fine, I bet you can't get to the other side of the pool before I do. Freestyle."

That finally earned him a reaction, an answering light in Haruka's eyes, and they clambered up the metal ladders at the sides of the pool, moved to the starting blocks.

Rin counted down. Once again, they dove in.

#

The rumours lasted for a while. Even halfway through junior high, when he'd stopped missing Rin and their time capsule had become little more than a comforting memory, Haruka still met the occasional boy or girl who'd say, "I remember you, you're the one we thought was a kappa!"

Not that any of this mattered. It was better being called a kappa than being called a prodigy. After all, kappas were supposed to love water. Water, not competitive swimming.

He supposed it was abnormal to be this fond of water. Everyone said so: his teachers, his parents, his classmates. Even his grandmother had said it once.

Everyone said so, except Makoto and Nagisa and Rin.

The rumours ran their course, and faded. Sometimes Haruka waited for this feeling to fade too, this feeling of needing rivers and lakes, waterfalls and ocean.

It never did. Even though he drew himself out of the bathtub each morning and observed his own pruned and wrinkled fingers, undeniable evidence that he had been born a land creature.


	2. Oceanside

**Oceanside**

They liked to visit the ocean when the weather was warm (and sometimes when it wasn't). Besides the swimming club, it was the only place Haru-chan ever volunteered to go. Sometimes the two of them wandered there on bright lazy afternoons, unintentionally; down the sloping path to the seaside, as if some external force was guiding their feet.

Haru-chan always went straight for the water. High tide, low tide, rough winds or smooth, he'd dive straight in. Like a dolphin, like a pearl hunter. No one dove quite like Haru-chan.

As for Rin, he liked sand. He liked it dry and white and fine, his feet buried in its summer warmth. He liked making sandcastles from it. And he liked pressing the soles of his feet deep into the ground, so he could watch the waves fill up his footprints as the tide rose.

Sometimes he found a tree branch and use it to draw pictures on the beach. Once or twice he'd come here with with Gou and carved out the words, "Matsuoka Rin, World No 1," but it felt embarassing to write something like that in front of the other boys; instead he drew stick figures, wrote simple messages like 'RELAY RACE CHAMPS', before snapping on his goggles and wading out to join Haru-chan.

They swam out far, always further than their parents allowed. At times the currents were so strong even Rin got nervous – only a little. Buoyed about by the waves, it was easy to feel anchorless and rudderless, at the mercy of elemental forces that remained always beyond their control.

Haru-chan never tried to control water, or fight it. There were days when Rin thought Haru would let water drown him, if it wanted to.

(They stopped going to the beach, just like they stopped doing everything else, after the time capsule. As in all other things between them, it was Rin who put an end to it, Rin who decided how things would be.

Haru-chan never tried to control Rin's decisions, or fight them.

And yet even now it felt as if Rin was the one who was drowning: in the past, in the present, in everything that should be, and wasn't.)


	3. dihydrogen monoxide

**Wordcount**: about 400 words  
**Summary**: Nagisa tries to teach Rei to swim. Rei nearly dies. Repeatedly.

**Dihydrogen monoxide  
**So it was a scientifically proven fact (well no technically it wasn't, but it might as well be) that Hazuki Nagisa, if not an outright space alien, was at the very least a creature on the verge of being excluded from the human race.

Nagisa was also a terrible swimming instructor. Rei realised this sometime between his second and third near-drownings in a single afternoon, but somehow despite this Nagisa managed to convince him to stick around for his fourth and fifth close encounters with death that day.

Which was why he was keeled over at the pool's edge, hacking up water and phlegm and hopefully, enough of his lungs that he would actually die and thus be excused from having to endure any more swimming tutorials.

Nagisa was thumping him on the back unhelpfully, which was an improvement over half a minute ago, when Nagisa had been looming over Rei's curled up body offering to do CPR. If Rei lived through his swimming lessons, he would make sure that Nagisa and all the others were correctly trained in first aid. That was _not_ how one did a Heimlich manoeuvre.

Rei eventually stopped choking, which Nagisa declared was great progress. "You didn't even faint this time, Rei-chan. Shall we see if you can make it to the deep end of the pool before the gym closes?"

"Absolutely not," declared Rei. Rei was fairly sure he'd lost all touch with his own sanity by this point, but he wasn't _suicidal_ quite yet.

"You want to swim like Haru-chan, don't you?" said Nagisa brightly. "Then you need to stop resisting the water. _Make friends with it_."

"It just tried to kill me," Rei objected, temporarily forgetting that a collection of dihydrogen monoxide molecules in liquid form did not have sapience or sentience and thus certainly could _not_ attempt murder.

He blamed Haru, And Nagisa. And Ama-sensei, come to think of it. After two days of listening to their philosophising on water and swimming Rei was starting to lose touch with the rational and scientific view of the material world.

"You two just need to understand each other better." Nagisa smiled cheerily. "Come on, we can try it with inflatable arm floats, if you're worried."

Rei glowered at him and, rather than dire humiliation, opted for his sixth near-drowning instead.


	4. a dream deferred

note 1: so apologies this ficlet trails off without a great deal of resolution. (it has no resolution because I NEED MORE CANON in order to resolve it, arrgh rin ). there may well be a rewrite/expansion in future.  
note 2: this runs on the assumption that Rin and Haru met about five years ago, shortly after the 2008 Beijing Olympics (and Michael Phelps' historical eight-gold-medal achievement). I did consider having Rin being an Ian Thorpe fan (since Australia) but Ian's probably a little old...

**a dream deferred**

Rin is eleven when he decides he's going to be Michael Phelps.

Summer 2008. Across the world, a billion people are watching the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. Rin sets the volume to max on the remote control while Gou sits wide-eyed on the couch next too him.

On the TV screen, fireworks stream upwards in brilliant clusters of light. A thousand drums beat. It's the second time Rin has seen the Summer Olympics.

It's the first time Rin has seen the Summer Olympics since learning how to swim.

In the next nine days, Michael Phelps is going to win eight gold medals.

In the next nine days Rin is going to dream an impossible dream.

#

The best thing about Rin's dream is that it's impossible. He's dreaming bigger than anyone can possibly imagine – his parents, his teachers, Gou. They don't take him seriously, but Rin changes that bit by bit. Morning by morning, lap after lap.

Michael Phelps swims fifty kilometres a week. Rin's coach won't let an elementary school kid do that, but he does let Rin train every day, morning and evening.

It's how he notices Haru, who's the only kid who spends as much time in the pool as Rin dow.

At first Rin wonders if Haru has the same dream.

He soon learns that Haru's only dream is to live underwater. Or to turn into a fish. Rin isn't sure which. But a dream is a dream, and Rin is happy that Haru has one.

Rin is also happy to have his dream to himself.

Haru's the most beautiful swimmer Rin has ever seen. Nagisa isn't wrong when it comes to that.  
But Haru won't swim backstroke, refuses to learn butterfly, won't use breaststroke even during training sessions.

Haru's never going to beat Michael Phelps's record swimming like that.

#

But Rin is not going to beat Michael Phelps if he can't beat Haru.

He's thirteen and knows even before he touches the wall that he's lost. Haru is faster, Haru is better. Haru, who wouldn't even have _entered_ a relay race if Rin hadn't dragged him into it.

Haru, who stares at him and says nothing and dares to look _sorry_.

#

It's three and a half years before they see each other again. By then, Rin has learned everything that is wrong with holding an impossible dream.

#

He's not even surprised this time when Haru loses, looking desperately relieved. He is, however, furious.

#

And yet – he can't be angry with Haru. Not really. It's like being angry with a dream for being impossible.

The difference is: you can't look a dream in the eye. Can't challenge it. Can't _beg_ it. (He calls out to Haru and it sounds like a plea to his own ears. It must sound pathetic to Haru too.)

The nine gold medals may never happen. He may never even manage _one_. But Rin is not ready to give up on defeating Haru.

And he looks Haru in the eyes, and knows that Haru is not ready to give up on Rin.

For whatever reasons he has.


	5. float like a butterfly, sting like a bee

float like a butterfly, sting like a bee  
_Nagisa likes everything about Haru. (Nagisa = Haru, implied Nagisa x Rei)_

* * *

The time Nagisa realised he was in love with Haru was two weeks of the most exquisite pain, the kind that leaves you breathless and elated all at once, the kind that made you wait in sunlit rooms, staring out at the insect-heavy summer air, revelling in the beautiful impossibility of the situation.

He was fifteen, he'd grown past the age of vague wet dreams and hazy urges, and he was no longer able to convince himself that what he felt for Haru was a child's admiration for a graceful and unusual bottlenose dolphin.

He liked everything about Haru. How odd Haru was, and introverted and kind. How Haru stared at things like flying fish and and butterflies, and at the prismatic effect of light refracted through water spray from a garden hose.

How unattainable Haru was, because Nagisa understood perfectly well how things were. In some ways the unrequitedness of his love made it seem more perfect and wonderful.

Nagisa would always be Haru's friend, but in the unspoken but obvious hierarchy of Haru's affections there was water, and then there were Makoto and Rin, Rin and Makoto, who between them held all of Haru's secrets and most of his heart.

On the whole Nagisa was happy to love Haru, and swim together with him, and be his kouhai.

But sometimes.

#

Ryuugazaki Rei was fussy and funny and fastidious. His opinions were loud, his mind was clever and obsessive.

He was beautiful, but not like Haru was beautiful.

He joined the three of them, and for a time Nagisa thought Rei had fallen in love with Haru as well. It didn't surprise Nagisa. Most people didn't understand Haru, but once they did, they always loved him.

Nagisa wasn't upset about it. It had always seemed right to him that the world should love Haru, love his swimming and his genius, even if Haru had never wanted to be loved by the world, only to grow up and be an ordinary person and live his life by the water.

It was natural to Nagisa to sit in the pool with Rei, and watch together as Haru cut his path through the water.

"He really does have perfect form." Rei's face was unguarded and admiring, as he tracked the path of Haru's movements.

"I've always loved Haru-chan's swimming," said Nagisa.

"I see," said Rei, and there was a note in his voice that prompted Nagisa to look away from Haru and at Rei.

Behind his goggles Rei's gaze on Nagisa remained steady and quiet. It seemed to hold unspoken thoughts that stirred something inside Nagisa's own heart.

It was on the tip of Nagisa's tongue to ask, "Rei, who do you like better, me or Haru?"

But he did not, because it did not seem like the time, and he was a little afraid that Rei was brave and honest enough to give a true answer.

For Nagisa did not have the courage in turn to say, "Maybe someday."

Instead he sent a great splash of water flying into Rei's face. Rei spluttered, glared, and immediately set about returning the favour.

Nagisa smiled, ducked underwater, pulled Rei down as well. They resurfaced a second later with Rei cranky and Nagisa laughing; Haru had finished his lap and was now sitting on the tiles at the pool's edge, watching them together with Makoto and Gou and Ama-sensei.

Nagisa thought maybe he could see the way things would be: Haru in the water, forever and always, and Makoto by his side, and Rin taking his long and complicated path back to Haru, back to all of them. Gou looking after them with her perception and tireless drive. And Rei by Nagisa's side.

It wasn't a future he was ready for yet, but he knew he and Rei would be ready when the time came.


	6. Mnemonic

**Summary: **Years later, Rei remembers Iwatobi.

* * *

**Mnemonic**

By the time he reached his mid-twenties his most constant contact with water was in his coffee (four cups a day, seven if he was on-call) and in the bags of normal saline he prescribed. Although he lived a steady and structured existence – pager beep to death certificate to medication chart – there were times when he was very tired, and times when he was altogether hopeless. Once or twice there was even the thought that he could not possibly go on any longer like this.

On such occasions he found that it was memory that sustained him: stored up within him like a song, never forgotten nor sung. Experiences he had not expected to recall came back to him: resilient, vivid, and untouchable. Sand encrusted on bare feet. The taste of tinned fruit and fish.

Rei remembered, with unrealistic nostalgia, shivering as the night air dried the seawater off his skin; remembered being cold, remembered being uncomfortable, remembered being afraid.

He remembered that he had not been alone, and this served to remind him that he was not alone now, even though those days had passed: the days of nearly drowning, the nights of watching stars reflected in the water at their feet.

Memory kept him alive, memory kept him hopeful, and when he got back from the hospital each night he carefully read and answered each of Nagisa's texts, in the anticipation of a future he hoped would come.


End file.
